Private certification versus public certification in the international environmental arena: the Marine Stewardship Council and Marine Eco-Label Japan Fisheries Certification schemes as case studies.

• Author: Moye, Patricia A.

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, the world's various fisheries have seen a number of problems, primarily depletion of fish stocks due to overfishing. While the UN has created some soft law, including sustainable fishing standards, to deal with the problem of fisheries depletion, no binding international laws currently exist. Several entities have decided to deal with the problem on their own, through eco-labeling programs. The Marine Stewardship Council, a private entity not directly affiliated with the government of any country, has created such a program. In addition, some governments have created similar programs, including Japan through its Marine Eco-Label Japan program. While the Marine Eco-Label Japan program is fairly new and therefore difficult to fully evaluate, it seems as though private programs such as the Marine Stewardship Council are better situated to run eco-labeling programs than state-run entities. Private entities such as the Marine Stewardship Council lack many of the pressures faced by state-run programs such as Marine Eco-Label Japan where governments have a strong interest in the fishing industry's success. By running an independent program with an unbiased third party certification scheme and making the governance of the program visible, programs such as the Marine Stewardship Council are able to run efficient certification schemes while maintaining accountability.

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. THE BASICS: FISHERIES, ECO-LABELING, AND CERTIFICATION A. The Problem of Fisheries Depletion B. The Development of Fisheries Certification and Eco-Labeling C. The Fish Stocks Agreement: A Hard Law Attempt at High Seas Fisheries Regulation D. UN Soft Law: FAO's Creation of Sustainability Guidelines III. THE MARINE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL: PRIVATE CERTIFICATION OF FISHERIES A. Development of the Marine Stewardship Council B. The Mechanics of the Certification Process C. Market Effects of the MSC's Certification Process D. Success Stories: European Sea Bass and Alaskan Salmon IV. JAPAN: STATE REGULATION OF FISHERIES A. Marine Eco-Label Japan: Beginnings and Structure B. The MEL Certification and Labeling Process C. The MEL Program in Practice V. ANALYSIS: PROBLEMS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ECO-LABELING SCHEMES A. Potential Consumer Demand Problems for Eco-Labeled Products B. Regional Differences in Availability of Certified Products C. Problems Surrounding the Labels Themselves D. Problems Unique to the MSC and Other Private Certification Schemes E. Problems with State Certification Programs Such as MEL Japan VI. A SOLUTION GOING FORWARD VII. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION

Fisheries are the units where the harvesting of fish for commercial purposes occurs, defined by such categories as location of the seabed or type of fish being harvested. (1) Understandably, since many fisheries are located across the globe in the world's oceans, regulation of fisheries is a topic of international interest. Effective management of fisheries requires balancing the goal of producing and selling as many fish as possible in order to maintain a profitable business with that of running fisheries that are resilient and environmentally friendly. (2) Naturally, the relevant questions are how exactly these goals should be balanced, and who or what type of organization is in the best position to determine what regulation needs to occur, how regulating standards should be created, and how those standards should be monitored.

Several different approaches have been taken in recent years to decide what guidelines fisheries should follow and how they should be implemented and monitored. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed a set of guidelines applicable to fisheries around the world. (3) Although the United Nations (UN) has developed guidelines as opposed to strict regulations, national governments, including those of Japan and Iceland, have recently undertaken the task of implementing official fisheries certification programs. (4) Another approach to regulating fisheries in recent years has been to develop a third-party, private organization to design a certification scheme, complete with measurable criteria to be met by member fisheries. Currently the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a private international organization, runs the most extensive effort of this type. (5)

This Note focuses on the recent development of programs designed to regulate or certify fisheries on an international level. Part II begins by providing a brief overview of the international fisheries industry and what certification of fisheries strives to accomplish. It then describes attempts at hard regulation through the Fish Stocks Agreement, as well as soft regulation through the guidelines promulgated by the FAO. Part III examines the concept of third-party fisheries certification by private organizations, focusing primarily on the program designed by the MSC. Part IV discusses programs designed by State governments to regulate their fisheries, using the Japanese government's recently implemented program as an example. Finally, Part V analyzes the pros and cons of both public regulation and private certification of fisheries, concluding that private certification is the preferred method for efficient and unbiased regulation of fisheries.

2. THE BASICS: FISHERIES, ECO-LABELING, AND CERTIFICATION

   1. The Problem of Fisheries Depletion

      Depletion of fisheries is a global problem that has been recognized in recent years by international organizations, including the UN. The FAO has indicated that at least 60% of the world's top 200 commercial marine fish stocks are in fisheries classified as either "mature" or "senescent." (6) According to the FAO, 47% of main fish stocks or species groups are fully exploited, 18% are overexploited, and 10% are "significantly depleted, or are recovering from depletion and are far less productive than they used to be, or than they could be if management can return them to the higher abundance levels commensurate with their pre-depletion catch levels." (7) In addition to having the obvious environmental consequences of a decrease in ecological health and species diversity, fisheries depletion also has negative social and economic implications. (8) Global food supplies can be drastically reduced, which can also lead to a decline in employment. (9)

      Fisheries become depleted as a result of overexploitation through overfishing and wasteful fishing practices, pollution, habitat destruction and depletion, the lack of effective fisheries management efforts, and natural causes. (10) "Overexploitation [generally] takes place when more fish are caught than can be replaced through natural reproduction. (11) The two major types of commonly occurring overexploitation are overfishing, when there is a "race for the commons" because too many fishermen try to exploit the fish in a given fishery, and wasteful fishing practices, when large commercial fishing gear is used to catch mass quantities of fish at a time, but only the desired fish are kept, while all others are disposed of in various ways. (12)

   2. The Development of Fisheries Certification and Eco-Labeling

      The goal of fisheries certification and eco-labeling is to create and maintain sustainable fisheries. A "sustainable fishery" can be defined as a "healthy fishery that is 'managed in a way to preserve fish populations for future generations."' (13) The FAO Code of Conduct sets out the goal of obtaining sustainable fisheries:

      Fisheries management should promote the maintenance of the quality, diversity and availability of fishery resources in sufficient quantities for present and future generations in the context of food security, poverty alleviation and sustainable development ... [and] should not only ensure the conservation of target species but also of species belonging to the same ecosystem or associated with or dependent upon the target species. (14) Eco-labeling and fisheries certification have been developed in recent years as tools for establishing sustainable fisheries. Eco-labeling helps increasingly environmentally aware consumers satisfy their demand for products that are environmentally friendly. (15) Eco-labeling is generally defined as "the affixing of a label to a product indicating its superior environmental attributes, to inform the consumer of those attributes and encourage product sales, while creating economic incentives for the satisfaction of environmental and social criteria." (16) The technique of eco-labeling easily informs consumers that the product they are about to purchase is more environmentally friendly than similar products without the same label. Eco-labeling also informs consumers about the processes involved in creating the product. (17) Eco-labeling allows the purchaser to make informed decisions that "take into account the environmental impacts of a product and its production, and to weigh those environmental impacts against other product attributes such as quality, source, and price." (18) Eco-labeling is a way of using market-based incentives to develop sustainable fisheries while supplementing other types of conservation efforts. (19)

      A technique often used in conjunction with eco-labeling is environmental certification, where a specific label is added to a product after an environmental assessment and approval by a certifying organization. (20) Environmental certification "examines the level of sustainability of fisheries exploitation and is generally restricted to environmental issues, such as the maintenance of fish stocks and the ecological impacts of production, rather than any wider coverage of socio-economic issues.... (21) In addition, environmental certification "rarely guarantees the quality of certified products, just their provenance." (22) Environmental certification is not to be confused with social certification, which can also be used in connection with fisheries. (23) Social...